What happens next is Cannes.
If anything is a signifier of the local film scene ramping up, it may be Tiny Bacteria, a short film created by Marina Shemwell and Victoria Jorgenson. Eugenie Bondurant, known locally for many reasons but all over the world as Tigris from The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2, plays Marthe Gellhorn, a journalist and travel writer who had the beautiful pain of being Ernest Hemmingway's third wife.
Tiny Bacteria, a six-minute short film, shows us Gellhorn's vulnerability and intricacy. It offers a simple slice of a complicated moment.
Jorgenson calls Tony Armer and his work with Sunscreen and the St. Petersburg/Clearwater Film Commission "instrumental in our film getting selected to be shown at Cannes International Film Festival."
"He's been doing this for several years," she says. When local film industry professionals chose mostly local short films to send to Cannes with Armer, they selected Tiny Bacteria as one.
The threesome — Bondurant, Shemwell and Jorgenson — traveled to Cannes, where they said St. Petersburg/Clearwater Film Commission had a pavilion, with "the idea to bring more people here to film," Jorgenson says.
"When people film they spend a lot of money locally, they spend a lot of hotel nights," Jorgenson says.
"To see this small area represented by Tony, it blew me away. We have a German pavilion, a U.S. pavilion, any country was represented… for our little area here to have its own pavilion?" Shemwell says. "That's the most amazing he can pull that off."
"It allowed us to play with the big boys," Jorgenson agreed.
That showing opens doors for them. The connections they made, they say, are priceless.
"When you're in the same vicinity as greatness," Shemwell says "you get inspired again. We can't measure that."
Local talent Kim Radatz and Bondurant's charismatic husband Paul Wilborn also worked on this project.
Although you can't watch it on Vimeo or other VOD services yet, you can see the film here.
Cathy Salustri is the arts & entertainment editor at Creative Loafing Tampa. Contact her here.
This article appears in Sep 14-21, 2017.